How to bridge the age gap when you have a younger or older team leader

The upheaval within the state’s Congress unit where senior members were bypassed in favour of a younger president can play out at the office too. Experts share how to overcome challenges and work around the age difference

The appointment of Zeeshan Siddiqui as the Mumbai Youth Congress president recently caused quite a flutter — among the most vocal opponents was Suraj Singh Thakur, who was named the working president. Resigning from his post, Thakur claimed that Siddiqui’s non-political background and lack of experience made him feel disappointed with the party’s decision and undermined. Such a scenario is not uncommon in modern workplaces, where employees are often tasked with managing much older or much younger colleagues. In either case, the role is fraught with challenges. “When managing employees who have been in the same role or the same organisation much longer than you have, you will face resistance as they may wonder why they should accept you as their boss. Conversely, the most common complaint raised by millennial and Gen Z employees is that their boss doesn’t understand them,” explains Brajesh Bajpai, a leadership coach, who has found himself in both scenarios. It’s important to not let these challenges escalate as both tenured and young employees bring their own strengths. He adds: “I realised early in my career that the role of a leader is not to control the team as much as it is to add value. There are two ways a leader can do so — you can either add value to the content or to the process.”

(From left) ) Zeeshan Siddiqui, Suraj Thakur. Mitesh Gada, Ankita Dutta

Be personable

Working as a young plant head, Ankita Dutta struggled for the first few weeks when she was asked to manage a predominantly male and much older crew. “The manufacturing sector is almost completely male-dominated. At the time, I was in my early 20s, and the manager reporting to me was in his mid-40s. Everyone else was at least a decade older than I was. At first, there was a lot of resentment, especially on the part of the manager who felt threatened and unappreciated. The team would also brush me off and although polite, was not cooperative. I tackled this by developing a personal rapport with every team member. It was a slow process as I would spend an entire day with each individual to understand the work they did and the challenges they faced. This helped to break the ice. Although I have since switched fields, this is a lesson I have carried forward to every job,” the 31-year-old social media professional shares.

Add value

With a senior, more tenured team, you may find that they are already masters of content or their daily tasks, says Bajpai. As a leader, you must take a step back to analyse what help they need, especially in terms of their processes, and then focus your energies on improving the same, he suggests. Dutta agrees, adding that after she observed her team for a few weeks, she identified that their workflow was chaotic, with no defined roles and responsibilities: “There was no accountability and so, when things went wrong, people would try to shift the blame to others. I decided to streamline the process by assigning fixed tasks with measurable outcomes. This way, we could also tackle issues much faster and managed to improve our overall output.”

Brajesh Bajpai

Build consensus

To overcome resistance, Dutta made sure to build consensus at every step, so that her team would support her decisions. Kunal Jhanwar, an IT professional who has led a team that was 10 years older than he, adds that a more experienced team brings a sense of resilience when faced with roadblocks. “As a relatively lesser-experienced manager, you may have never encountered certain situations before; your team’s tenure, on the other hand, gives them insights that you can tap into. It’s therefore important to include them in the decision-making process so that you don’t waste time trying out strategies that haven’t worked out in the past,” he explains. 

Lead with humility

To be a successful leader of a young team, a manager must learn to cast their ego aside, Bajpai says. “Share your own professional struggles with your team as this can help them to relate to you. When working on projects, understand that youngsters today are often better equipped to manage certain tasks or even projects than you are. The business and technological landscapes are evolving very rapidly. What may have worked for you in the past may be irrelevant or even obsolete today,” he explains, adding that on a recent website project, he decided to step back and let a 24-year-old team member take charge, taking up the more menial role of reporting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In doing so, he says, ensured the best output for the project, while also earning him his team’s respect. 

Kunal Jhawar

Challenge, don’t teach

“Younger teams can disrupt age-old processes with their more progressive thought and new ideas. As leaders, we must nurture this,” shares Mitesh Gada, a 41-year-old real estate professional. He does this by encouraging his team to not be confined by guidelines but to treat them as a framework to innovate. The team then brainstorms the best ways to approach projects. “Younger people often don’t like to be hand-held. You’d do better to challenge them by giving them the flexibility to approach tasks as they deem fit, and offering guidance as needed. If they succeed, they’ve learned what works and if they don’t, they’ve still learnt,” he concludes.

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